


in the palm of your hand

by MathiasHyde



Series: Elementals universe [1]
Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-08
Updated: 2016-04-08
Packaged: 2018-06-01 00:31:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 17,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6493855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MathiasHyde/pseuds/MathiasHyde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zaizen infiltrates Higa to kill Hirakoba Rin, but it turns out to be a lot more difficult than he first thought.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mercurysensei](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercurysensei/gifts).



Surely the rumours of how to infiltrate the Higa family weren't true.

To infiltrate one of the families, even one as small and nondescript as Higa, it had to be harder than just standing outside their house and waiting for them to walk by.

Even moreso since learning that yes, while they were small, they did still possess one of the most prized powers in the community and had somehow managed to hide it all this time.

It should have been harder, to get in close contact with the power wielder, who were traditionally so carefully protected and hidden from others lest anything happen to them. Even though times had changed now and they were taking more prominent positions within their families... infiltrating somewhere like Hyotei or Rikkai would take months of planning and observation, not to mention a heap of good fortune.

It was a joke, Zaizen decided as he leaned against the wall outside their house, looking at his phone.

It was a joke set up by his family to get him out of the house.

Koharu and Yuuji always seemed to in the hobby of trying to trick him like that and he hated to think that they'd actually succeeded for once.

Shiraishi had to be in on it too, hearing the rumours and sending Zaizen out on the mission. He'd been the one to drop him off outside Higa's house with the clear instructions repeated again that Zaizen had just rolled his eyes at.

He stared flatly after the car as it moved off, hearing Tooyama in the background cheering about takoyaki. He hoped they crashed on the way.

The lights were off in the house but it wasn't too late in the day, with nighttime just starting to fall. He felt uncomfortable standing there so he turned off his phone and reassessed the situation.

Okinawa was hot and Zaizen already didn't like it there. That was a fact.

It was also definitely a fact that one of the Higa family members possessed an elemental power. Zaizen had made that call himself and done all the research. He'd seen the control they'd had over water and taken reading after reading to determine that it was actually the influence of powers and not just the tides and a coincidence. 

There was no doubt about that information.

But the requirement to just stand outside their house...?

If he did accept that it wasn't a poor joke and looked at where it had come from... perhaps it had been a way in once, when the threat hadn't seem that big. But surely they had realised the weakness by now and stopped it. There hadn't been any actual information on how it happened, just that it was a way, and Zaizen could think of twenty three possibilities on how this could happen off the top of his head as he stood there, his hands in his jacket pockets.

His train of thought was cut off as there were footsteps and people appeared around the corner, talking. Zaizen's gaze focused immediately on the figure in the middle, hidden almost protectively by the unnaturally tall man in front of him.

Blonde hair and bright eyes that caught sight of Zaizen's gaze on him and stared back for a long moment, his lips parted in surprise. Still young, but Zaizen had no way of knowing the ages of the previous water users.

“Oh he's perfect,” came the voice next and the person he'd been watching so intently made a beeline for him, breaking away from his companions.

“Rin, wait!” came the words, but they were ignored.

And before he could do anything, Zaizen found himself with arms wrapped around him and more physical contact than he'd ever experienced in his life happening all at once. He immediately stiffened and moved to shove them off him automatically, but they didn't budge.

If anything, the arms just tightened more and he stopped breathing.

… Perhaps getting close to Hirakoba Rin really was a matter of just standing there, then, Zaizen thought most confusedly. It went against all logic, but the arms around him and the body pressed so tightly against his own were very much real.

“I want him, Eishirou. Please let me keep him.”

Zaizen looked through the mass of blonde hair that was blocking his view, to see the glint of glasses, the disapproving fold of arms and a deep frown.

Kite Eishirou, the man who was likely to be one of the leaders of Higa in the future.

“You already have three, Rin. I got you a new one last week.”

The answer came quickly, Zaizen almost expected Hirakoba to think about it for a moment at least.

“I don't care for them anymore. You can get rid of them.” The cold disinterest in his voice was at such odds with the wandering hands that made Zaizen squirm and flinch away and the laughter in his ear that followed.

There was nothing but silence in response to that and Hirakoba sighed impatiently. “If you don't want to, I'll do it myself.”

Kite's expression was unreadable, but somehow he had a feeling Hirakoba usually got what he wanted.

Zaizen shifted, reaching for the knife in his belt, but his arms were pinned too tightly to his side. And he realised belatedly that the tightness of the hug and the positioning of Hirakoba had probably all been very intentional for that purpose.

… Perhaps getting close to Hirakoba Rin wasn't as easy as he first thought.

–

Zaizen sometimes wondered what it would be like, to possess one of the most sought after powers.

To be simultaneously worshipped by the family and constantly fearing for their own lives.

He was so different, with his power that was so easy to hide that no one in his own family even, had suspected he had it. While the elemental users... their birth was always traditionally expected and celebrated.

He'd looked into it one night during his usual bouts of insomnia, but there were no real records of when collecting elemental powers into a single family had become such a desirable goal. But it had been happening for generations, as far as he could tell and some of the powers, their presence and allegiance could be tracked throughout historical records.

Shitenhouji had none, though they were the traditional holders of fire, but they hadn't possessed that particular element for many generations. Wind too, had been with them for a few years, until their still teenaged wielder had been shot out of the sky. Now they had just an eclectic collection of powers amongst their number and quite a few with none at all. 

Shiraishi's ability to produce poison from his arm and Tooyama's terrifying super strength were impressive, other families acknowledged that, especially with Tooyama capable of breaking down cliffs in a way that was belied by his physical stature. But nothing compared to what they knew other families possessed.

Rikkai made no secret of their powers or how dedicated they were to completing their elemental collection. Everyone knew they had three elemental users in their fold, that formed a terrifying triad backed up by a mixture of other extremely powerful powers that had been collected over generations of murder and bloodshed.

Shiraishi so desperately wanted one in their family, especially as he sat on the cusp of leadership, and occasionally Zaizen realised the extent of the obsession that would sacrifice so much to get just one.

So Zaizen had made the call of which one to focus their attentions on, pulling on his data of all the families.

Attacking Rikkai was akin to suicide and would only result in the loss and subsequent capture of one of their own carefully nurtured powers. A tempting prize for what could be gained, but one not worth it for the risk.

Shiraishi had understood that one easily and had agreed with him.

The Rikkai family had held onto their elemental powers for generations, carefully keeping their prizes behind shut doors. It had only been in the last generation that they'd gotten bolder, the personalities behind the powers not happy to stay protected. Two of the users as well, were in definitely prominent positions within the family from birthright, and they controlled that position and their own as elementals to great effect.

Fire, Lightning, Earth.

And really, Zaizen could understand it as he had flicked through their family files and what he knew about them. The elementals aside, there was the kitsune, the demon, and the tactician to get past before one could even reach them... and those were only the beginning of it. Rumour had it they had a healer as well, and while the idea had been tempting for Shiraishi, it wasn't enough.

Why would they need to hold back now? They were the most powerful they'd been in generations, if the old records were anything to go by.

Ice was at Hyotei and had traditionally always been there, guarded jealously. And they'd done a good job of protecting it as well, as it hadn't ever fallen out of their grasp. But the latest Ice wielder was too flashy and too powerful with his own position in the family as the heir to Hyotei. 

While overall, Hyotei's powers weren't quite as strong as Rikkai, they were one of the largest families, making up for a lack of power with sheer numbers. Far too strong to take on without a large degree of preparation and perhaps an alliance.

Shiraishi had considered for a long while, partnering up with Fudoumine, a family that they'd long had ties with... but in his greed, he'd decided not to. What if they were betrayed at the last moment and only managed to gain Fudoumine a power instead?

It wasn't worth it.

One of the lesser known targets, then. That there were precious few of now as Rikkai picked them off one by one.

There had been rumours about Seigaku possessing an elemental, who had been seen flying through the air as lightly as a feather on the wind. It had been a tempting target, almost enough for Shiraishi to risk sending Tooyama after him, but he'd been dissuaded from that particular target as he discovered shortly after that Niou from Rikkai and Atobe from Hyotei were targeting him.

Meanwhile they could only hope that Atobe was the one that succeeded and they didn't manage to add another victory to Rikkai's number.

Zaizen thought it said a lot about Rikkai's confidence that they didn't even send one of their own elementals. He would monitor that situation closely. With any luck, maybe Seigaku and Hyotei could take out one of Rikkai's inner members.

But it was unfortunate, as it left the water user left as their only option.

He'd been the one to find them, hidden away by Higa. Zaizen wondered for how long they'd had the power, it had vanished from the records a long time ago.

Generations of hiding... it had seemed impossible.

It had taken a long time before he could even study Hirakoba, with how rarely he seemed to leave the house. That fact, combined with how deeply in the house he was being taken, Zaizen could maybe see the impossible becoming possible.

The bedroom was obviously Hirakoba's, and bright and comfortable... but windowless and surely right in the centre of the house as he looked around the room.

“Make yourself comfortable,” Hirakoba said and Zaizen warily moved into the room. There was no locking of the door, he realised and Zaizen felt very strange about that, watching Hirakoba leave the door slightly ajar.

“Clothes to change into are in there,” he said, pointing at what had to be a wardrobe. “I have to do something quickly, but I'll be back.”

Hirakoba was smiling and perhaps anyone else might have been lulled into complacency at it, but it just made Zaizen more paranoid as he stayed where he was, watching the other man move into an adjoining room.

The door didn't close this time either and he could hear so clearly, the splashing and the sick squelch of something that made him tense up. The screaming too, cut through the other sounds like a knife and he glanced at the ajar door again.

He could still run. He didn't think that Shiraishi actually expected him to succeed in this mission no matter how much he wanted the power. As far as Shiraishi knew, he didn't have a power, it wouldn't have been a surprise.

But all too quickly, Hirakoba was back, smiling again.

Too late to run.

Zaizen's gaze lingered on the water dripping off him now, the trail of red left behind him and the red of the room whose door was wide open. And perhaps more disturbingly, the almost upset look on Hirakoba face.

“Oh, you hadn't started changing yet? What a pity.”

That wasn't a reason he'd been expecting and Zaizen took a moment to adjust the data he already had about Hirakoba.

“I'm fine like this,” he said and to make Hirakoba lower his guard a bit, he moved over to the nearby chair to sit down, watching the blue eyes follow him so closely.

All too quickly he found himself enveloped in another hug, this time a very wet one, but with the same hair petting and there was a kiss to his cheek that lingered much too long for Zaizen's liking.

“You're so shy, it's very cute,” Hirakoba said and Zaizen purposely shifted, pulling out the collapsible knife that he'd sewn into his belt. He had to get this over and done with, he realised, before he ended up in that back room.

He didn't really care about succeeding, but he did care about not being killed.

But just as he was about to stab the tip of the blade into Hirakoba's stomach, there was a tight hand around his own and Hirakoba tsked, prying open his fingers to make him drop the knife.

“Play nice, hun,” he said and those damn lips moved up to his ears. Zaizen squirmed at the kiss there and the knife fell to the ground with a clatter. So instead he stepped on Hirakoba's foot which caused him to laugh, even as he jerked his foot away and got the message to pull away.

“No knives allowed on the first night together. That's not fun.” Hirakoba bent down to pick up the knife, looking at it in interest and Zaizen watched impassively on as he spun it around and finally clicked the blade into position, hidden in the hollow handle.

Zaizen wasn't used to being confused, with how well he was able to analyse situations and come up with solutions. And with how well he could read people and anticipate their movements. But he found himself confused as Hirakoba placed the knife on the table, with no attempt made to keep him from it.

… It was like Hirakoba was goading him into trying to attack him again, and Zaizen so hated to be thought of as predictable like that. So he just stood there, watching Hirakoba as he moved to the bed, stripping off his clothes and leaving them in a trail along the floor.

Hirakoba was an unknown, he needed to collect more data.

“Come to bed.” Hirakoba tilted his head slightly at the slight furrowing of Zaizen's eyebrows. He frowned himself. “Unless you don't want to stay here.”

He didn't. He really didn't.

But he was curious and Shiraishi's orders were still on his mind, as dumb as they were.

He didn't know what to do. So he did the logical thing, that part of him was screaming was the stupidest thing to do, and went along with it. He shuffled closer to the bed, rewarded with a bright smile from Hirakoba.

He didn't know what to expect, or what he'd gotten himself into. There hadn't been any details about what happened after – for reasons that he suspected he'd heard when Hirakoba had gone into the adjoining room.

There'd been speculation, of course, his family members hadn't been able to stop themselves from wondering about it when the details of Zaizen's task had come to light.

And he had his own speculation and predications about what might happen as well.

Zaizen still flushed at the memory of the lesson that Koharu and Yuuji had attempted to give him, the wrestling practice Tooyama had so eagerly tried to convince him into, and the silent clap on his shoulder of reassurance from Gin.

His family sucked, he thought sourly as he climbed into bed, pulling the blankets over him.

He should have expected one thing at least, from what little he knew of Hirakoba from the few minutes they'd been in the same room together. And it certainly came, the naked body pressed up against him as Hirakoba curled up next to him, hugging him tightly.

…

Zaizen stared woodenly at the ceiling, ignoring the lightly tracing fingers that were making their way under the edge of his shirt to skate over his bare skin.

Was this some kind of foreplay that he was expected to respond to somehow?

Zaizen stiffened as the man shifted, his leg sliding up over Zaizen's and his hand sneaking up over his stomach.

“Stop it,” he said automatically and the hand fell still, though he thought he could hear a soft laugh before they fell quiet again.

He wasn't really that tired, although by the steadily slowing breathing of Hirakoba, the other man was. The hand didn't move again, staying under his shirt, palm pressed against his skin.

He was too alert when he was awake it seemed, too aware of Zaizen making moves to attack him. It would have to be done at night, he decided. Zaizen shifted a little, trying to pull free, but Hirakoba just mumbled in complaint and tightened his arms and legs around him, holding him in place.

Hirakoba buried his face more into his shoulder and Zaizen sighed.

Maybe not, then.

Maybe he could sew more weapons onto his clothing that he could use in bed when his guard was down. Because it seemed that when he had gotten into bed, he wasn't going to be getting out of it again without waking up Hirakoba.

Just to be sure, Zaizen moved again and Hirakoba grumbled. The fingers lightly petting his skin suddenly dug into his side and Zaizen froze.

“Stop it, hun. Go to sleep.”

The fingers went back to their mindless, sleepy petting and Zaizen made himself exhale slowly and relax just a bit.

It seemed that he'd have to lie completely still as he thought throughout the night, staring at the ceiling and the faint outlines of the bed canopy and the lamps that he could see on the ceiling in the dark.

He had a lot of data to process and a lot of things to consider, perhaps taking an extra night to do this instead of completing the mission straight away wasn't a bad thing.

–

“What's your name?” Hirakoba asked, curled around him like some kind of anaconda, his head on his shoulder. “Normally I don't ask, but I'm very fond of you.”

“Mary Poppins.”

Hirakoba blinked at his instant, deadpan answer as they sat and Zaizen let Hirakoba hug him with all the enthusiasm of a block of wood. It took him just a moment to recover though and he shrugged and laughed, burying his face into the junction of Zaizen's neck and shoulder.

“... Mary-kun, then. Nice to meet you.”

What a strange thing to say when they were sitting like this.

Hirakoba was a very strange person, but he was learning that very quickly.

–

When faced with an unknown situation such as this, Zaizen usually spent time getting to know the situation as much as possible before he did anything.

This was why he was so successful and why Shiraishi thought so highly of him, even though he didn't possess any sort of offensive-type power that Shiraishi coveted.

Zaizen made himself useful in other ways; by choosing the right moments to do things, making sure things would always turn out right when he wanted them to, and just analysing situations, coming up with possibilities all down to exact details.

Shitenhouji weren't aware of how much Zaizen manipulated the things around him. They just thought he was a very lucky and a quite intelligent normal person.

And that suited him just fine, as if his own family couldn't tell, what hope did others have? And it gave him that time to observe and get his bearings, especially now when he needed it.

Hirakoba and Higa were, even with what information he'd collected before coming to Okinawa, mostly unknowns.

Just knowing about Hirakoba's penchant for physical contact with people and the fact that the rumours were correct in how easy it was to get inside the Higa household weren't nearly enough. There were still too many unknown factors that were messing up his calculations and possibilities.

It seemed that Hirakoba didn't normally choose to take in people who lurked outside, it was Kite that did it for him. And it had been a complete coincidence that Hirakoba had been passing by as Zaizen stood there.

He didn't like coincidences like that.

Did Hirakoba get to pick whether or not people stayed after Kite brought them in? What were the ones before him like? _Why_ was Kite taking people off the street and giving them to Hirakoba? What sort of position did Hirakoba wield within his own family?

He'd have to stay longer, he decided. And perhaps go against his usual self and take a few risks, to try and gather data faster.

Hirakoba was such a deceptive character. Lighthearted and clingy and nice one moment as he lounged around on the bed and listened to music. But Zaizen knew how easily he'd disposed of people that no longer interested him, and how aware he was of attacks.

That couldn't be all there was to his personality though. He needed to know about how Hirakoba acted with his family beyond just the few people he'd seen so far in the first few days.

What sorts of positions did each of them hold within the family as well? He wondered he could push it to those sorts of levels that would undoubtedly come in handy later as well if Shitenhouji ever found itself embroiled in a fight with Higa.

But first he had to get past Hirakoba.

He let his guard down at night, Zaizen knew that from the first, second and third nights of lying in bed listening to the man's breathing and timing as he seemed to wake up a little, enough to shift against him and mumble a bit in his sleep before going back into his dreams.

105 minutes, to get through the first REM cycle of the night. 118 for the second. 120 for the third, though it was usually interrupted and Zaizen often found himself falling asleep before it could be accurately measured to completion anyway.

It was a possibility to attack him during that time, he filed away for later consideration. It would be more difficult, with Hirakoba wrapped tightly around him as he slept, something that didn't ease up even as the man relaxed into sleep, as Zaizen had tested.

Trying to wriggle free, even in the depths of REM sleep only caused the cycle to reset and the grip to get tighter.

He was going to have to sew the knife back onto his pants, even as it lay on the bedside table... but still out of reach.

He was easy going and compliant as he was drifting off to sleep, Zaizen found out from a few slurred conversations with the man. And it was on the fourth night that he decided to take a risk.

“Hey, Hirakoba,” he said, keeping his voice down enough that people outside wouldn't hear. There was always someone outside Hirakoba's door, at all times and it was never properly shut. To keep an eye on him, or on Hirakoba, he hadn't worked that bit out yet.

He had however learned that everyone in Hirakoba moved very quietly, even on the wooden floors.

“Mmm?” Hirakoba mumbled and shifted to look at him, his gaze sleepy and unfocused. 

“I was sent here to kill you.”

“Mmm, I know. Can it wait until the morning? I'm too comfortable to start fighting now.” 

Considering he knew Hirakoba had been just moments away from drifting off to sleep, maybe he'd left the statement too late, with Hirakoba too tired to properly understand it.

Zaizen paused and he prodded Hirakoba in the stomach, amused at how the man squeaked and flinched away from it.

“Lend me your laptop and internet password for the night and I won't try to kill you.”

He'd seen the laptop on the table every day, constantly tempting him, but he hadn't been able to find an opportunity to look at it and try to hack in.

For that matter, Hirakoba hadn't really touched it either in that time, it had just been sitting there. A trap, maybe, the paranoid part of his mind suggested. A trap from Higa, who might have found out who and _what_ he was. Somehow.

Hirakoba blinked sleepily at him and sighed, unwrapping himself from around Zaizen. “Aren't you going to sleep?”

Zaizen shook his head, refusing to elaborate and Hirakoba frowned at him, looking rather troubled before he petted Zaizen's hair and drew him into another hug, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

His hair was sticking up already, on the way to some truly atrocious bed hair.

“You should have told me you've had trouble sleeping. It's pretty normal for the first few nights.”

… As in, the other people Hirakoba had dragged into his bed, who Kite had found standing outside the Higa house, had found it hard to sleep? He wondered then how long Hirakoba usually kept people around.

He needed to get this done quickly, no matter how much his instincts were telling him to take it carefully.

Hirakoba patted him on the head before he crawled out to bed, clambering over Zaizen to head to his desk. He seemed so unconcerned with giving Zaizen his laptop and casually typed in the password to unlock the account, Zaizen's eyes automatically following his fingers to memorise the password.

 _Surfing123_ was hardly a good password.

That done, he seemed rather satisfied to just settle back down into Zaizen's side and go back to sleep.

“You're not going to delete your browser history?” Zaizen asked, going straight to the internet browser and looking first through his favourites and then to the browsing history.

“If you want to look into it, you can. There's nothing interesting there.” Hirakoba didn't even open his eyes, an arm sneaking over Zaizen's lap to drape over him again.

And indeed there wasn't as Zaizen scrolled through the list, looking for anything incriminating he could hold against Hirakoba. Some surfing websites – he'd bought a new surfboard online a few days ago, apparently – and a lot of tidal and weather maps.

He also seemed to spend a lot of time researching types of fish and coral. Interesting.

That done, he turned his attention to his own needs, tapping away quickly at the keyboard and listening to Hirakoba's breathing to slow down into deep sleep before he switched windows and contacted Shiraishi.

He missed his phone, which had been taken off him as soon as he'd gotten into the Higa household – at least they had that level of precaution. But he'd been prepared for it and Shiraishi knew there wasn't going to be much contact.

At least his message meant he wasn't dead yet.

Zaizen thought of what he highly suspected had happened in the bathroom that first night and he glanced down at the head of blonde hair pressed into his thigh.

 _how much longer??_ came Shiraishi's message back to him.

His fingers hovered over the keys before he closed the window and turned his attentions to other things on the internet. He would deal with Shiraishi later.

–

It was disturbing how easy it was to fall into Hirakoba's rhythm.

It was easier to just accept the hugs instead of pushing him off, pretending cool disinterest instead of trying to get free. Pushing him off just seemed to amuse him more anyway.

Hirakoba's hands liked to wander but they never pushed past boundaries that Zaizen himself set by slapping his hand away when it snuck too low or strayed too close to certain parts of him that definitely weren't for other people to touch.

There were none of the sexual touches that the others in Shitenhouji had told him to expect... even the occasional hand that tried to slide between his legs he'd realised was more seeking warmth than anything expectantly sexual.

Hirakoba just had this strange desire for physical contact with no expectations beyond that, which Zaizen found himself oddly okay with as long as it didn't interrupt him too much. And it was strange how easy it was to adapt to having someone draped over his shoulder, or curled up into his side as he sat in bed on the computer.

He'd been expecting a lot of things, but he hadn't expected being kept for over a week as a glorified body pillow.

And he definitely hadn't been expecting himself to be okay with it.

“What do you like to eat, Mary-kun?” Hirakoba asked, lying on his stomach and hanging over the edge of the bed to Zaizen's shoulder as he sat on the floor. “As a snack.”

“Mochi.”

Zaizen barely noticed the fingers petting through his hair now, too focused on the video game on his screen. He should try to get a mouse though, the trackpad was messing up his accuracy.

“Hmm... that's alright, I guess. Do you like shrimp crisps?”

He pulled a face. “Gross.”

“Seafood?”

“Pass.”

Hirakoba's fingertips were now touching down the back of his neck and Zaizen reached up to push his hand away, hunching his shoulders a bit at the ticklish feeling.

It was easy to predict now, Hirakoba accepting the boundary and moving back to petting his hair and Zaizen relaxed a little bit.

“What sort of mochi? Peanut butter?”

“Red bean. Peanut butter is okay.”

Hirakoba was silent for a bit and Zaizen shifted the laptop slightly so he could see the other male's reflection in the screen without making it too obvious. 

He really should have anticipated it, but he wouldn't deny that he was pleased when the next day, one of Hirakoba's family members dropped off a box of red bean mochi to his bedroom. He was in such a good mood he didn't even mind Hirakoba leaning all over him while he ate them, savouring every bite.

Maybe it wasn't so bad here.

And that was such a dangerous thought to go down.

But maybe he'd let himself think it for just a little while longer while he ate another piece of mochi. At least until the box was finished.

–

The mystery of the adjoining room that Hirakoba vanished into regularly was answered when he finally followed him in, partly out of curiousity, and partly to get a better understanding of Hirakoba's schedule and gather data.

Perhaps this room would provide a better opportunity for the murder than the bed at nighttime.

There had been no invitation for him to join him in there, but although Hirakoba had been surprised, he also seemed quite pleased.

The realisation that the room had clearly been built for the water user in Higa became so apparent, as did why Hirakoba seemed to vanish so often into the room. There was no other explanation as to why such a comfortably large bedroom would have an even larger room attached to it, with no other doors from it, into a room with an indoor pool.

It made him want to research when exactly they'd built the house or done renovations and try to link that to when the water elemental power had made its way into Higa's family.

Zaizen knew where the bathroom was, he'd been taken there the morning after when he'd had to kick a sleepy Hirakoba awake to show him. And he knew Hirakoba used it as well. And looking around, there was no sign of other facilities... just a giant indoor pool and a small shower.

Hirakoba moved to sink into the water, taking the few strokes from one side of the pool to the other, vanishing under the surface for much longer than any natural human would be able to. Zaizen stood at the edge, watching and counting seconds, careful not to let any part of him get wet, even as the water lapped at the edges of the pool.

He seemed happy to just lie on the floor of the pool and Zaizen gazed at his closed eyes and wondered what he was doing. He didn't seemed to be moving any time soon though, and Zaizen foolishly let his focus shift slightly away from Hirakoba.

And that was all it took, for him to not notice the tendrils of water sneaking up to grab onto his legs and pull him abruptly into the pool.

He should have foreseen it and as he hit the water, his first thought was _I'm going to die_.

Especially as he felt Hirakoba's arms wrap around him and there was a cold rush of fear that he'd misjudged and had signed his own death warrant by walking into the room with him.

He couldn't breathe and Zaizen struck out at the other man before flailing for the surface, grabbing onto the edge of the pool that was mercifully close. He coughed and Hirakoba was suddenly there, treading water next to him, warm hand on his back.

Was a knife coming next, he wondered. Would he feel it stab into his back and would he join the number of people that had undoubtedly met their end in this room with Hirakoba?

But there was no knife. And the warm hand didn't move from between his shoulder blades except to rub in sympathetic circles.

“Can't you swim, Mary-kun?” he asked, peering at Zaizen's face.

Zaizen didn't answer and he tried not to focus on the amount of relief he felt – misjudgment and potential death avoided – and the burning of his face in embarrassment from it all as he made his way silently to the other end of the pool that had to be shallower, still holding onto the edge.

If pretending not to be able to swim kept him alive for longer, he'd pretend.

“Do you want lessons? Next time I'd advise not wearing clothes in, they do weigh you down.” Hirakoba was hovering, prodding at him and the hand on his shoulder, his cheek, touching his ear was making him twitch until he shoved it away.

“Just leave me alone,” Zaizen finally snapped at him.

He hopped quickly out of the pool once he reached the steps, ignoring the hurt and confused expression on Hirakoba's face. He'd probably regret that, he knew that, as he'd meant to be trying to stay in Hirakoba's favour for the sake of his mission... but he just needed to get out of the room right now.

He was probably going to die, he realised that.

But still, he went to sit on the computer, scrolling through his regular forums and looking into the history of the Higa family building. He kept his ears strained for any sound of what was happening in the pool, even as he determinedly focused on the screen.

Zaizen made no move to get up and leave and run for the door. Would he even make it?

He tensed up as Hirakoba came out of the room, glancing up at him to take in everything in a single glance. The still sad expression on his face, the damp clothes, the way his hand was hidden.

This was it.

Zaizen tapped away at the keyboard, sending a message to Shiraishi to alert him of his death.

_i failed. bye_

And then Hirakoba was there next to him, and there were arms around him and a face burying itself into his shoulder and he could smell the salt water of the pool and feel the dampness of his skin against his back.

“I'll teach you how to swim. And I won't laugh at you if I have to get you some swimmies or something.”

“I don't need swimmies,” he grumbled. Zaizen hunched his shoulders and pushed Hirakoba's face away, which just made the other man laugh and pull away, moving his hands under Zaizen's armpits to pull him up.

“Come to bed, hun. Swimming always makes me sleepy.”

And this time, Zaizen didn't protest as he let himself get tugged off to bed, or when Hirakoba curled up next to him, trapping him in his arms and legs as he did every night, lying still and staring at the ceiling.

He had to think, about the new information from just now, from his own sense of relief... from Hirakoba's easy forgiveness... sleep could wait.

–

With his assumed knowledge that Zaizen didn't like swimming, Hirakoba seemed happy enough to let him just stay in the shallow end of the pool while he spent a while cavorting around the deeper waters.

Hirakoba had managed to procure him some swimmies, which Zaizen had looked at and refused to touch after the matter. He didn't need them, Hirakoba just didn't need to know that.

And it helped Hirakoba underestimate him.

It was a good vantage point to watch from anyway, sitting at one end of the pool and to get a better understanding of the extent of Hirakoba's powers. How long had he been using them and practicing?

From what he could see, it mostly centred around Hirakoba breathing underwater and moving the water so that he swam faster. If it wasn't for his own observations regarding the other man's surfing on the one time he'd seen him outside, he might almost be tempted to pass it off as a case of mistaken identification and Hirakoba's sole power being that of underwater breathing.

But he couldn't help himself one day, watching Hirakoba float past him without moving his hands or feet at all to propel himself forward. They'd been in the water a while and Zaizen could see his fingers and toes starting to wrinkle up.

“If you didn't control water, do you think you'd still like it as much?” he asked, watching as Hirakoba's eyes opened to look at him in surprise at the sudden question.

They seemed more blue when they were in the water. Or maybe that was a result of using his powers.

“I don't see why not. Controlling water just makes it easier to be in it and enjoy it.”

And there it definitely was, a movement of the water as Hirakoba let it move him from floating on his back to sitting on the step next to Zaizen. There hadn't been enough physical action from Hirakoba to account for it.

“You don't do much besides breathe underwater,” he pointed out and Hirakoba laughed in his ear, wrapping his arms around him.

He vaguely noted how normal it was now to have a naked Hirakoba pressed against him, so much so that he barely noticed it now. He was much more focused on Hirakoba's words.

“Well, it's nice to keep some things about my capabilities secret. Especially from a person trying to kill me.”

Zaizen tensed up a little at that and felt Hirakoba press a kiss against his ear. _Ticklish_. He automatically squirmed at that, which seemed to delight the man, who hugged him tighter and kissed his ear again.

The part of him that wasn't focused on getting away from Hirakoba and pushing his face away considered who might be outside listening today and whether or not they'd heard that particular detail. They normally didn't talk much in the pool room, with its echoing sound and words traveling dangerously far, even with no door to the outside hallway directly from the room.

Hirakoba didn't seem to think too much about it though... about people overhearing his conversations, the general lack of privacy he had from his family, or about Zaizen having come here to kill him.

Still, it was hard to relax as he sat hunching in the shallow waters and Hirakoba seemed to sense it.

He didn't know whether or not to be appreciative of Hirakoba's attempts to distract him, especially as the hands petting his skin slipped down between his legs and he slapped them away, hunching over his legs a bit more.

–

He got the confirmation that they'd been overheard just a few hours later as he listened at the door, straining his hearing to a conversation that sounded like it was down the hallway near the kitchen that he'd never been allowed into.

It made sense, Hirakoba had left to get food for both of them, and with how much time he spent with Zaizen inside his bedroom or in the pool... it was a good time for his family members to talk to him.

He sat with his back against the door, slightly ajar and if he closed his eyes, he could catch most of it. It helped when Hirakoba's voice rose slightly in volume as he seemed to get angrier and the other person's voice rose as well in response.

“When did you find out that's why he was here?”

It was Kite, Zaizen figured out then. He hadn't seen much of the man this whole time he'd been there, besides a few watchful glances as he'd gone to the bathroom and passed the man in the hallway. But the files on Higa mentioned he was being groomed for leadership in the future, in a family that was oddly traditional but didn't have a set patriarchal inheritance like a lot of the families did.

“The first night when he tried to kill me.” … Maybe that had been a bad decision. But he hadn't really considered Hirakoba not even pausing over it or holding it against him. That had been foolish oversight on his own part. “Don't look at me like that Eishirou. I made the choice and nothing's happened.”

“Nothing except for you keeping an assassin in your bedroom this whole time. I'm removing him.”

Zaizen tensed up as he heard footsteps – the wooden floors of Higa's hallways were so convenient in that and he'd utilised it more than once. 

“Don't you dare, Eishirou.” Hirakoba was moving as well, following after Kite, it seemed.

“He's tried to kill you. We should have never let him in in the first place.”

“And I don't care. I like him. He's cute.”

“You-- … You've known him _weeks_ , Rin. I'll get you a new one, they're all cute to you.”

Zaizen didn't know why he hadn't left already, with what they were saying. Especially with them getting closer to the room, although their footsteps had stopped again. They were surely just a few paces away from the door with how clearly he could hear them.

“I don't want a new one. I like Mary-kun.”

He'd seen the petulant side of Hirakoba many times in the past few weeks, but it was different when it was about keeping him alive and arguing with Kite for his sake. And for once Zaizen was actually quite grateful for it.

“Listen to me. The elders know and they're not happy. Saotome's calling to take him away from you if you don't get rid of him first. At least let me do it.” Kite's voice had dropped and Zaizen had to strain his ears again, pressing his ear against the door a bit more.

There was a long pause and there was a certain arrogance to Hirakoba's voice that Zaizen hadn't heard before, though he could so clearly imagine his expression as he spoke. “Then let him try. Let them all try, I don't care. They all know what I'm capable of, surely they're not _that_ stupid. He's _mine_ , tell them to leave him alone since they actually pay attention to you.”

There was angry footsteps that he could only guess were Hirakoba's that stopped suddenly.

“Rin! _Listen_ \--”

“No, you listen to me. I've let them keep me trapped in this _fucking house_ my whole life, the least they can do is let me pick who I spend my time with. Let go of me.”

Zaizen scooted out of the way just in time as Hirakoba stomped into the room, red faced and angry. Hirakoba glanced at him on the floor and seemed to realise exactly what was going on in the space of a second before he turned away to slam the door shut, the first time it had been fully shut since Zaizen had arrived.

The lack of attention was kind of disarming actually as Zaizen sat and watched Hirakoba huff and flop onto his bed, wrapping himself up in the blankets in a cocoon.

Crying, then?

There were no sounds though, that Zaizen might normally expect. He'd heard enough angry crying tantrums that were loud enough to shake the house when Tooyama was in a bad mood – usually based around his friend from Seigaku ignoring him – that the silence was a little disturbing.

It was so tempting to just go on the computer and let him deal with it by himself, but Zaizen felt a little responsible anyway. He was going to regret this, he told himself as he moved over to the bed and prodded Hirakoba.

“Oi, Hirakoba.”

“Go play video games, Mary-kun,” came Hirakoba's muffled reply and his body under the covers shifted to curl up more on itself. “Give me a little while to myself and then we can play.”

Definitely crying, then.

Zaizen moved to sit down on the bed instead, even with the invitation to get himself out of this awkward situation. Surely Hirakoba had felt the bed dip as he sat down and after a while, Hirakoba moved, shuffling closer and dragging the blankets with him.

Arms snuck around his waist and Zaizen let Hirakoba's face bury itself in his lap, not even minding all that much the fingers that slipped up under his shirt to lightly stroke at his lower back.

“Why don't you just leave?” he asked finally. Surely if Hirakoba was as powerful as he'd been threatening Kite with, there wasn't a way to stop him from just walking out the door and leaving the house and family.

Hirakoba's laughter was muffled, but it still sounded bitter. “I don't exactly have somewhere to go.”

Hirakoba sighed and his fingernails dug a little into the skin of Zaizen's back, making him twitch. “At least here I have some kind of protection from people trying to kill me. Even if it sucks.”

It wasn't a matter of Higa being particularly good at hiding Hirakoba's existence from the world, Zaizen realised. Perhaps it had started off as that, from the positioning of his room that bespoke of generations of traditions of this being the room for the water user that they carefully harvested.

Hiding someone away in a room could only do so much.

What seemed to have saved him for so long and kept the rumours so unknowing until recently had been Hirakoba's own lack of interest in using his powers for anything but his own enjoyment. And, thinking about it, it must have driven the family leaders to despair as they tried to control him.

Zaizen himself might have so easily fallen into the trap of thinking Hirakoba was perfectly normal, if he hadn't tracked him beforehand, and seen the waves that were too good to be natural, how he stayed underwater too long and once, how he manipulated a rip to stop it from pulling him out to open water.

If he hadn't been so observant to notice it, and he knew other people weren't like him, he would have missed it.

It was on the tip of his tongue, that Hirakoba could leave and move to Osaka, come stay in the protection of Shitenhouji. But then he realised that was a ridiculous suggestion... he doubted Shiraishi would accept that outcome and Hirakoba would die there regardless.

“You could probably hide yourself just fine without them,” he said. He moved his hand to pat Hirakoba on the head twice before moving his hand back to lie still on the bed, hearing and feeling Hirakoba's soft laugh. “Your power's pretty subtle.”

“The elders told me I'd be hunted down the moment I leave. By other elementals. Which is why I have to have someone with me all the time when I go outside.” Hirakoba sounded bitter in his muffled words and Zaizen patted him again.

Scare tactics, then. When the elders had realised that Hirakoba wasn't going to so easily fall into line and do what they wanted.

“It's not so bad now. Hiroshi, Eishirou and Yuujirou are good friends.” Hirakoba's arms tightened around Zaizen and he grimaced. “It sucked when that fatty elder Saotome used to look after me. He never let me leave the house.”

Hirakoba grumbled to himself a while longer, Zaizen carefully filing the pieces away. And then Hirakoba fell silent and they stayed there, he wasn't sure for how long. Instead he focused on the feeling of Hirakoba's light touches along his skin, that never strayed below his waistband although they skimmed the top of it a few times.

It was Hirakoba was spoke next, breaking the silence. “Do you still want to kill me?”

They'd never spoken about it, really, even though he'd clearly known the whole time. Zaizen had almost let himself be lulled into the false sense of security from that. And even now, Hirakoba didn't seem particularly bothered by it.

Even now, as they sat together, he didn't seem overly tense or alert about it. Just curious.

“I don't know.” It wasn't a lie, he realised as he said it and it even took him by surprise.

“Good. I don't want to have to get rid of you, I'm much too fond of you.” There was a teasing lilt to Hirakoba's voice now. He spared half a thought for eavesdroppers on their conversation again before he replied.

“You couldn't stab me, you'd ruin a hug that way.”

Hirakoba laughed, a bit louder this time and the hug around him tightened.

“I could always drown you, you know. I have a very deep pool in the next room.”

“I have swimmies now.” Even if they were atrocious duck printed ones and he could see their offensive selves sitting on the other side of the room on a table.

“I could puncture them.”

“... I bought an inflatable ring in the shape of a rabbit on amazon. You can't drown me.”

The laughter was relaxing him, as was the affectionate petting on his skin that he realised was helping Hirakoba calm himself down as well. The other man would probably fall asleep like this, in a little while, using Zaizen's lap as a pillow and pressing his face much too close to his crotch that neither of them were bothered by.

It had been so easy to fall into Hirakoba's trap, he realised. And part of him didn't seem to mind all that much either.

\--

He hadn't realised how much he disliked being trapped inside Hirakoba's room until they were allowed to go outside for a trip to the store, something Hirakoba announced with a degree of enthusiasm.

Zaizen couldn't imagine how Hirakoba remained sane trapped in his room all the time... even just stepping outside felt like he'd been reborn and shook some of the tension off him.

He still didn't like Okinawa humidity and heat though, and much preferred the cool airconditioning of Hirakoba's room. He wanted to push up the long sleeves of the shirt he was wearing but the sun was very bright. Zaizen hunched his shoulders as Hirakoba prodded the back of his neck and hung much to close for the weather, which just made it worse.

They were accompanied by Chinen, who lurked just a few paces away from them, constantly watching. He was a regular passerbyer in the corridors; overly tall and just strange. They'd never been introduced... and indeed, Zaizen hadn't been introduced to anyone within the Higa household. The only people he'd seen were those that passed him by or entered Hirakoba's room and those were precious few.

He controlled shadows though, Zaizen recalled from his notes on Higa and immediately he could think of different variations and he wondered which ones Chinen was capable of. He certainly seemed to stick to the shaded areas the most on their short walk... uncomfortable out in the light, maybe?

Maybe he should suggest to him to buy a parasol.

Zaizen was snapped out of his thoughts as Hirakoba abruptly pulled him sideways, into the cool air-conditioning of the store. It was small but well stocked, it seemed and Zaizen let Hirakoba drag him straight to the snack area.

There were a few boxes of mochi in different flavours and Zaizen stared at them all before he pulled out one of each, and added a second of the red bean. Hirakoba laughed and accepted the pile of boxes, Chinen lurking just a few steps away from him, already holding what looked like packets of shrimp flavoured crisps.

Gross.

Seeing the difference in Hirakoba was he was outside compared to in his room was interesting too and Zaizen stayed silent and watched, even as they moved to a cafe and Hirakoba picked out lunch for all three of them and added it to Chinen's arms to hold onto.

Chinen didn't seem to care though as he carried multiple bags, leaving Hirakoba free to hug Zaizen as they walked, apparently uncaring to people staring at them and Zaizen's ears turning red.

He should have expected the real destination for the day as they reached the beach and Hirakoba hopped up onto the wall to sit down. Looking at his expression now it was so easy to see how much happier he was outside in the fresh air and sun and at the beach, rather than in the artificially lit salt water pool in the room next to his bedroom.

He stared flatly back at the people that looked at them and he decided that they were definitely because of the way Hirakoba was draped over him, rather than because of realising who he was.

“Do the people here know about you?” he found himself asking, keeping his voice low and Hirakoba looked at him in surprise.

“What do you mean, Mary-kun?”

“Higa's still the most influential families in Okinawa,” he said. The only influential family with a bloodline that contained powers, in fact. “Do they know about you and what you do?”

Hirakoba shrugged and handed him his lunch and... Zaizen had the realisation that perhaps he didn't know and had no interest in knowing either. The outside world and other people didn't really seem to interest Hirakoba, save for the ocean.

It seemed... like such a strange concept with what Zaizen knew about the more powerful members of the other families and the position they took in their families and their influence.

They were powerful families in Japan, all of them, and always had been, even to the people who didn't realise the other side of their world that had powers and a struggle for power between them all.

Hyotei had so much influence over business all throughout Japan and while ordinary people who weren't in their world weren't aware of the elemental power that their heir Atobe wielded, he was such a well known figure and terrifying in his own right even to them.

To kill him would have such repercussions, not just in their world with a shift in power, but also in the wider world. Which made him an even risker target and that much safer from attack and surely he must know it.

Rikkai had long pulled back from its roots as an old family with its bloodline firmly planted in the samurai class that had been ruling its part of Japan for so long. But now in the underworld, Zaizen wouldn't be surprised if people knew of the terrifying presence of Yukimura Seiichi and Sanada Genichirou.

Yukimura at least, was pushing for greater control over his family and with Sanada behind him, Zaizen wondered how much time was left before Yukimura took command for real.

Even Shitenhouji maintained some of its longstanding presence in the political world, though it had faded off in the past few generations. But even so, Shiraishi and Tooyama were well known and acknowledged as the forefront of the family, even though only Shiraishi was in line for head of the family.

For Higa to have made the decision to keep Hirakoba from everything about their family... was this traditional with all past water elementals?

“Hiroshi, do you think I can surf today?” Hirakoba asked, turning to look at Chinen and Zaizen glanced at him.

“No. You've got a greeting with the elders today, remember?”

Hirakoba huffed in frustration and took an annoyed bite out of his lunch, staring wistfully at the ocean that Zaizen definitely didn't miss as he watched. Chinen seemed to be watching just as closely, he realised, as he glanced at the other man's face again.

“You can go get your feet wet if you're fast.”

That was all Hirakoba needed before he shoved his half finished lunch into Zaizen's lap with a “hold this for me, please, hun,” and he jumped off the wall onto the sand.

It was uncomfortable sitting in silence with Chinen lurking behind him as Zaizen stared after Hirakoba, watching him splashing in the shallows of the water. The water was slowly but steadily moving closer into the shore, undoubtedly meaning Hirakoba was in deeper and deeper water until he was up to his knees without having moved an inch himself. 

The other man was staring after Hirakoba as well and Zaizen took another bite of the sandwich he'd been given. Not fish, thankfully.

“How often is he allowed to go to the beach?” Zaizen found himself asking suddenly and he surprised himself at the question.

Even more surprising was Chinen answering, his expression dark as he watched. “Not often enough.”

Somehow Zaizen knew that the only place Hirakoba would want to go if he went outside was the beach. And that pretty much answered the other question he had been meaning to ask Hirakoba.

“You're in love with him,” Zaizen said, a half serious statement just to get a rise out of Chinen. Maybe he'd get the other man flustered and embarrassed and denying it. It was so obvious as he said it though, as he noted Chinen was still watching Hirakoba so closely.

The man's gaze flicked down to him. “So are you.”

And to that, Zaizen had no answer and he was silent, biting into his lunch again and turning his attention back to the waves and the blonde splashing around in the water.


	2. Chapter 2

Hirakoba was still damp from the pool that night as he draped himself over Zaizen's lap. But with how disappointed he'd been to leave the beach and the time he'd had to spend at the bottom of the pool sulking after he'd vanished from the room for a large chunk of the afternoon... he decided he didn't really care enough to tell him to towel himself dry again.

“Is your family as bad as mine?” Hirakoba asked, turning his head to look at Zaizen. “Do you have elders telling you what to do?”

“We don't have elders.” And even if they did, Zaizen wouldn't listen to them. He listened to Shiraishi, somewhat, as the other man planned for his approaching time to take over the leadership of the family.

Hirakoba sighed loudly and stretched out a little before settling down again. “They're not even that powerful, you know. Some of them don't have powers at all.”

“Then why do you listen to them?”

“Because they're my family and you're supposed to...” There was so much doubt in Hirakoba's voice and Zaizen wondered if this was the first time that he'd actually thought about it.

Of course, keeping their most powerful member under control would have been a lifelong thing.

“And the people on guard outside your door?” He made no attempt at lowering his voice for that and he thought he heard a little bit of shifting from outside in response.

“To help me whenever I need them... apparently.”

“They're more likely there to stop you from ever leaving without permission.”

“... Probably.” Hirakoba sounded a bit miserable and resigned to the fact. “They used to say it was for my own protection as a child.”

Zaizen found himself with his hands on Hirakoba's back, resting there and feeling him relax a little into the touch.

“If you wanted to get rid of them, you could. It would be easier than in other families too, since your family structure isn't based on immediate relations and bloodline.”

He didn't have a clear understanding on how Higa's structure worked exactly, but he knew that it wasn't like the other families were normally. Especially knowing now that some of the family elders were powerless people as well.

Hirakoba laughed a little at that, though the silence he fell into was thoughtful. “I'm not quite strong enough to take on the whole of my family. Some of them are quite strong.” He shrugged. “I mean, just Eishirou alone would be a bit of a task.”

Zaizen shrugged. “I never said you had to. There's other ways to get power than killing people.”

“Isn't that what our society's based on, though? Killing for powers?”

Zaizen looked down at Hirakoba, who was settling back down to press his face back into Zaizen's lap. He jabbed him in the side, being rewarded with the usual unhappy squeak and twitch. “How much do you know?”

“Don't do that.” Hirakoba pushed his hand away and Zaizen just prodded him again. “I got told enough when I was younger.”

To keep a younger Hirakoba in line with fear and to justify why he had to stay inside all the time. Zaizen knew that. They'd never finished this conversation before and Zaizen was so tempted to now, to see how far he could push it.

“Tell me.” Zaizen threateningly touched his fingertips to Hirakoba's side again and heard him grumble.

“The families collect powers by killing people from other families. And the elemental powers are always the most sought after because there's only one each of them and they're the most powerful.” Hirakoba's voice had a bored, learned by heart sound to it.

Hirakoba sighed. “Do the other elemental people also get treated the same?”

Zaizen could hear the unasked question. Were the other elementals also kept trapped inside all the time?

“Traditionally they were as a form of protection. And the powerless members of the family, or those with the weakest powers were usually sent out to try and kill and collect others. 

“What about you, Mary-kun?”

“What about me?”

“I know you're not powerless. Or weak.” Zaizen stiffened at that and Hirakoba twisted around to look up at him, smiling. “I would have thought your family leader would have wanted to keep you safe from harm as well.”

“I don't have any powers,” Zaizen said with a flat expression and Hirakoba just smiled a bit more.

How much had Hirakoba guessed about what he could do? … How much had he given away?

“Tradition's been changing recently, anyway.”

“Oh?” At least it was easy to distract Hirakoba away from the topic.

“Rikkai's an interesting example. They used to be like this, but their elemental users are pushing to take over the family now.” Zaizen didn't linger over his thoughts about what he foresaw happening when it was successful, for there was no doubt of it. Shitenhouji would have to adapt to a changed society when it happened.

“Rikkai was mentioned today in the meeting,” Hirakoba said and Zaizen looked down at him. He hadn't been in contact with Shitenhouji enough to get regular updates on what had happened. Something he regretted now about being locked away for weeks on end.

Hirakoba thankfully seemed to sense his interest in the topic and kept talking. “They were targeting Seigaku and got caught up in a fight with Hyotei. The elders are considering whether there's a chance they'll come here next.”

For everything that was happening, Hirakoba didn't seem too concerned or all that interested. He seemed to be paying more attention to sneaking his hands under Zaizen's shirt some more, even as Zaizen processed the new information.

“They might.”

Though he doubted it. At least not for a while... Hirakoba really was very subtle with his powers and not going outside often meant he wasn't seen using them.

“Would you come with me if they made me go somewhere?”

… No, was the immediate answer Zaizen came to. But Hirakoba was watching him so closely.

“Would there be mochi and internet there?”

Hirakoba laughed and snuggled up to him again. “I'll have to check. I'll make sure to request it if they make us move.”

–

He should have expected it, really, with knowing that the elders wanted to get rid of him and that irritating Hirakoba by getting rid of him was something they most definitely probably didn't want to do.

But still, it was a shock to walk into the bedroom from the pool room with Hirakoba in tow to find another person just standing in there, waiting. It hadn't occurred to him that they might try something like that, a very passive... potentially successful way to get rid of him that wouldn't make Hirakoba turn on them.

Perhaps they weren't so foolish after all.

He'd almost prefer to be dragged out of the bedroom and killed out back than Hirakoba potentially throwing him away because he lost interest.

The first time, Hirakoba had walked past to hop into his bed, uninterested.

The second time, he'd taken at least a moment to pause and glance before heading dragging Zaizen to his bed.

The third time, Zaizen thought he had it figured out, as Hirakoba fully stopped and looked and considered.

There was an obvious pattern emerging. This third person was small and dark haired and looking like he was about to wet himself as Hirakoba eyed him up.

Was this how it normally was then, how Hirakoba chose his new companions? Did Kite just shove them into his room and if he liked them, they never left again until their bodies were dumped somewhere? And if he didn't like them... they were shown the door as he did with the first two?

… For that matter, he didn't know what happened to them after they were made to leave the room.

And suddenly he realised that his acceptance into Higa had been a complete coincidence. If it had been anyone else in Shitenhouji that Shiraishi seemed like to sending on various tasks that had been sent there... they would have just been rejected by Hirakoba.

Tooyama might get half a look, with his small stature, but Zaizen had a feeling it was the dark hair as well that had made Hirakoba decide he was 'perfect'.

Were the others before him the same, he wondered. If he'd gone into that pool room on the first night, would he have seen others that shared those features with him?

Zaizen stared at the stranger, much younger than him, now that he looked closer and still looking terrified. He was from Yamabuki, if he remembered correctly. Were Yamabuki believing the rumours too and making a move to gain an elemental? Had they had the same plan as him? 

Did this Dan Taichi have a knife concealed under his clothes to stab into Hirakoba the moment he got enveloped in a hug? Or was he the type to poison him? He really doubted Dan was the type to try to physically overpower Hirakoba, just the idea made him laugh.

“The pizza's getting cold,” he said, poking Hirakoba sharply in the back to get his attention. “Stop flirting, I'm hungry.”

That seemed to get Hirakoba's attention quickly and he found himself smothered in a hug that he just stood and accepted, glancing at the stranger just a few paces away and noticing their gaze on them. Good.

“So jealous, Mary-kun!” Hirakoba sounded weirdly delighted at this in his teasing and Zaizen pushed him away with a frown.

“I'm not jealous. I'm hungry.”

“Of course. The packet of mochi before did nothing for your stomach. Let me get rid of them first and you can start eating.”

He got a kiss on the cheek and then Hirakoba was gone, to the door to poke his head out to ask 'Yuu' to come and remove the person. Zaizen knew he shouldn't feel quite so pleased about the result as the person he recognised as Kai came in to pull the Yamabuki person out.

Zaizen couldn't even bring himself to feel a sliver of pity as he heard them head down into the house, away from the front door and his question on what happened after seemed to be answered for him.

–

Hirakoba having his interest caught by other short, dark haired males that he seemed to enjoy just for the company was one thing that Zaizen had to keep a close eye on as he cared about remaining alive.

And it was so easy to manipulate Hirakoba's attentions anyway that it seemed almost pointless to worry about them.

In terms of the elders getting them separated, that particular tactic wasn't a concern anymore. … But he still worried a little.

But he didn't care so much about it when Hirakoba was gifted with other men that definitely didn't fit that description. Especially since Hirakoba didn't seem to particularly care as Zaizen set up the laptop at the table in the room and focused his attentions on the screen, headphones on and for all intents and purposes not paying attention.

… Somehow he thought Hirakoba wouldn't care if he was paying attention either, a thought he didn't linger on.

After all, Hirakoba never shut the door fully when they were around either and Zaizen had to spare a thought for whoever was on duty and standing outside the door when it happened.

He wondered how regularly this happened normally... and had Hirakoba been holding himself back until he thought Zaizen himself might be comfortable enough to allow it? At least when they visited, Hirakoba tended to present him with a box of mochi to keep himself occupied for a while.

The visiting men seemed to have more problems with it though and some of them had outright refused as Zaizen stared at them from his corner as they entered the room, others had been obviously confused but eagerly accepted it as Hirakoba distracted them.

Zaizen clicked on the screen a couple of times and reloaded his weapon, stuffing a piece of mochi in his mouth.

The headphones weren't noise cancelling, he'd learned that very quickly. But the sound of Hirakoba's voice speaking was easy enough to block out, as was the sound of flesh hitting flesh and soft moans from the bed just a few paces away.

At least it was never particularly loud.

Zaizen ate another piece of mochi.

He glanced up occasionally, to see the progress and check that there wasn't any sign of the male being tempted to stay the night. He'd only had to kick out a few people out of the room, Hirakoba never seemed too keen to have them stick around and took care of that most nights by himself.

Telling him “I'm tired, I want to go to sleep tonight,” always tended to get him to remove the ones that lingered around, anyway.

And Zaizen was happy to do it for the privacy, even if it meant a night spent without a computer and staring at the ceiling for most of it until he fell asleep in the early hours of the morning.

Tonight's visitor was one of the ones that tried to convince Hirakoba to tell Zaizen to leave the room, even as he turned down the volume so he could eavesdrop on their conversation as he'd found himself doing most nights that this had happened. Hirakoba was getting better at convincing them otherwise with a trail of kisses up their jaw and some well placed hands.

A thought occurred him to suddenly and he lowered his headphones before speaking. “I'm not sleeping in the wet spot,” Zaizen said and Hirakoba pulled away from his companion to look at him.

“Oh, of course, darling.”

“Change the sheets.” It seemed pointless to remind Hirakoba, since he changed them after every time anyway after the first time Zaizen had protested about it.

“When I'm done. You can even go get them for me.”

Zaizen nodded and sunk back into his seat, putting his headphones on again. But he still didn't turn the sound up too loud, so he could hear properly the murmur of their voices and found himself glancing in the direction of the bed much more often than usual.

He couldn't see very well from this position, mostly just of the man's broad back – too muscular, but Hirakoba always seemed to go for that type, he'd realised – and Hirakoba's legs. There was nothing new to glean from this position, Zaizen had seen it far too often now.

What was new though, was Hirakoba being rolled over and pushed up onto his knees. Zaizen had come to the conclusion that Hirakoba didn't like this position since he seemed to like being able to touch and kiss freely for himself. But, as Zaizen glanced up again and his fingers fell still, he did seem to enjoy kisses pressed to the back of his neck and the amount of attention otherwise.

It grew boring to watch though and Zaizen was about to turn his attention back to his computer screen when he saw movement that definitely wasn't normal and the sound of Hirakoba's breathing changed.

There were hands around his neck, his face pressed into the pillows and Hirakoba was struggling, but pinned down by a body much larger than his. 

And that was all Zaizen needed to see.

He picked up the closest thing on hand, his mouse cable being yanked out of the port before he threw the mouse at the back of the person's head, hearing it hit his head with a satisfying noise.

It had been worth the night spent in Hirakoba's arms to get him to buy him the heavier, more solid gaming mouse, then.

It was enough of of a distraction, to give him enough time to move, faster than maybe even Kenya would have, he liked to think, pulling out the collapsible knife that he'd so carefully sewn into his belt again, stabbing it into the man's back.

He felt the blade scrape against bone and he twisted it, feeling their body convulse underneath him. And the hands loosened from around Hirakoba's neck and Zaizen watched with great fascination as he twisted around, his eyes an unnaturally bright blue and an expression on his face Zaizen had never seen before and he carefully filed away.

He was manipulating the water in their body, he realised, forcing blood into his lungs as he heard the wet gurgle of the man trying to breathe. And just for good measure, Zaizen pulled the knife out of the man's back and stabbed him again, twisting the blade around.

Hirakoba's eyes narrowed, still unnaturally bright and there was suddenly blood appearing and the wet sound of a man choking on his own filling lungs.

Zaizen didn't know how to feel as the man slowly died between them and blood was still appearing, staining the bedsheets and growing.

Hirakoba kicked the body off him before he started coughing, taking in deep, wheezing breaths. “That was uncalled for,” he said finally moving to flop onto his back and touch his neck. “It was kind of hot to begin with though.” 

He just stared at Hirakoba and reached out to poke his neck for himself. “No.”

“He could have waited until I came at least,” Hirakoba said and Zaizen's gazed flicked down to his groin and then back up to his face. Apparently attempted murder and Hirakoba having to kill someone hadn't killed any sort of arousal. Fascinating information. “What a selfish asshole.”

“Yes. What an asshole for leaving you like that. Good thing he's dead,” Zaizen said flatly. He turned away from the bed and made his way back to the desk and the computer. Which no longer had a mouse, he realised glumly and he looked down at the still playing computer game.

“You could always lend me a helping hand, Mary-kun,” Hirakoba said with a bit of a smile.

Zaizen glanced back at him. His eyes were back to normal now, he realised. Definitely a reaction to power being used. “Do it yourself.”

Hirakoba tsked and Zaizen moved to put his headphones back up again. Still, even as he made do with the trackpad to finish off this round and stared so intently at his screen, there was no sound from the computer blocking out the sound of Hirakoba on the bed; the little catches of his breath that Zaizen thought he could calculate the frequency of, the sound of what Zaizen suspected was his feet shifting on the covers and the soft moans that Hirakoba made no effort at biting back.

Zaizen kept his gaze focused on the screen that was blank, just listening and figuring out what was happening from sound alone. He didn't need to look to know what was happening, he'd learned the sounds well enough by now and what they meant.

“Done yet?” Zaizen asked as it fell silent and he looked up again. Hirakoba was still on the bed, his legs sprawled and blood streaked over them as he continued to lie on the soaked sheets.

There was more blood than the should have been... he wondered what Hirakoba had done to cause it. He'd been focusing too much on the shifting colour of Hirakoba's eyes, he foolishly hadn't paid attention.

The body was still lying next to him but Hirakoba didn't seem to be paying it any attention at all, or even noticing it was there now that it was no longer interesting.

“Yes. Give me a moment, hun.”

“I'll go get someone to remove your visitor.”

“You're so kind. Thank you.”

Zaizen stopped by the bed for a moment on his way to the door, looking down at Hirakoba who seemed very tired all of a sudden – a result of the power usage, maybe? - lying with his eyes closed and taking purposely deep breaths.

He pulled the knife out of the stranger's back with a squelch and as he stood there with Hirakoba so tired and vulnerable and his knife in his hand... it would be so easy to just stab him now and get it over and done with.

His fingers tightened and he prodded Hirakoba with the tip of his knife, which made him open his eyes suddenly and look at him, though he made no move to defend himself.

“You nearly died because you got careless. _Stupid_ ,” Zaizen said, wiping the blade on the bedsheets and folding it back up before resting it on the bedside table.

“I'll be more careful next time.” Hirakoba said with a tired smile.

It was Chinen that came to collect the body when Zaizen poked his head out the door. Had he been listening to the whole thing, standing there the whole time in the shadows? He wondered how frequent of an event this was as well, when Chinen didn't even seem to blink when he walked in on the scene.

“Thank you, Hiroshi. As always.”

Hirakoba patted the man on the arm, still not willing to move, but Chinen seemed to not really care, either about the mess now on his arm or about Hirakoba just lying there. He was much more interested in the stab wounds from Zaizen. He didn't even seem to blink at the blood or the fact that Hirakoba had clearly been in the middle of sex when it happened.

Definitely listening at the door, then.

“You didn't do this,” he said, moving to inspect Hirakoba's neck which he obediently tilted his head for, letting his hair fall to the side.

“No, he took me by surprise. Mary-kun did it, he's a good bodyguard.”

Chinen glanced at him, his eyes intense before he turned his attention to moving the body, dragging it off by the arms and pulling it along the ground to the door and leaving a wet, red smear. Looking at the man now, there was blood all down his front as well, though Zaizen could see no wound that could have caused it. Hirakoba, then.

“I'll clean it later.”

“Thank you.”

And then Chinen was gone, leaving the door wide open behind him. Although Zaizen couldn't really blame him, the body had looked heavy and the man was very thin.

More important was looking down at Hirakoba and the bed itself. “I'm not sleeping with you in that bed,” Zaizen said, looking down at Hirakoba who laughed at him, reaching out to smear a mixture of come and blood on his arm and then went for his face.

Zaizen flinched back and slapped Hirakoba's hand away, which was only greeted with more laughter.

“Go bathe.”

“Are you going to help me?” Hirakoba was waggling his fingers at Zaizen again and he glanced down at them, seeing the mess of fluids on them. He didn't know how to feel about Hirakoba being unbothered by lying in blood either.

… How often had it happened for it to be so normal, he wondered. And that thought was more sad than disturbing, he realised.

“No. You can clean yourself up.”

He expected it though, moving off to the pool room to wash off the gross on his arm and hands, Hirakoba getting up to hug him from behind and he felt the warm press of his skin against him and his frown intensified.

“Thank you for saving me, really.”

Zaizen pushed Hirakoba off him, not talking until he could reach the small shower in the pool room to spray himself with water. Now his back was all bloodied too and he sighed as he stripped off his clothes.

“You should have done it yourself.”

“I got distracted.” The hands that were moving along his back were distracting and Zaizen turned the water spray on Hirakoba for a moment, hearing him laugh before he turned the water on his back to get rid of the gross.

Zaizen carefully thought about how to phrase his next question and he let Hirakoba wash his back, his fingers pressing into Zaizen's muscles. He elbowed Hirakoba as the hands snuck just a bit low.

“Did you know you were capable of what you did?”

Hirakoba was silent and the hands fell still for a moment before they moved to hug him around the waist. “You mean, have I done it before?”

He could tell Hirakoba was smiling as he spoke though and Zaizen didn't move at all or make a sound, even as the hands traced around his inner thighs. The shower head was still in his hands, spraying on the floor and Hirakoba's chin was on his shoulder now.

“Yes hun, I've done it before,” Hirakoba said eventually. “To one of the elders, a long time ago.” His smile was just a bit vicious. “They learned not to touch me.”

They sat like that for a while longer as Zaizen processed this and came up with so many scenarios on what could have happened. There were too many possibilities and not enough data though he had enough of an idea that he didn't want to linger over too much. Finally he moved to stand up, abruptly spraying Hirakoba in the face with the shower head.

“Get clean. And I'm hungry now.”

“Pizza, then? Tell Hiroshi, I'll be out in a little while.”

–

They did indeed get pizza, which Chinen brought in with his cleaning supplies and they sat and watched him tidy up with well practiced efficiency, Hirakoba curled up around him.

“You owe me a new mouse,” he said and he could feel the huff of his breath on his ear as he laughed.

The bedroom smelled sharp from the disinfectant that had been sprayed liberally around the room to get rid of any remains of the dead man. Chinen had even gotten a new mattress to replace the other one that had been soaked. He was very currently putting bedsheets on it, also apparently uncaring about the blood and come on the dirtied set.

“I know. I'll ask Eishirou tomorrow.”

Zaizen frowned. “I want to pick it myself this time. Your other one was too spongy.”

Hirakoba shifted to press a kiss to his cheek. Zaizen barely even blinked at it now. “Then, we can sneak out tomorrow and go get you one.”

Somehow he doubted that would happen. They'd probably get to the door and be told to go back inside. And Hirakoba would obey and just make one of his friends get it for him again.

Zaizen sighed. “... A mechanical keyboard as well.”

Hirakoba snorted a bit and settled back down. “Just a mouse.”

“... I should have let him kill you,” Zaizen sulked and Hirakoba buried his face into his ear, making him wriggle at the ticklishness.

“Fine, a keyboard as well. Because I love you that much.”

Chinen glanced up at that and looked over to them, one of Hirakoba's many pillows in his hands being plumped up.

“I love you too, Hiroshi. No getting jealous now.” And just for added measure, Hirakoba blew him a kiss.

Chinen's expression didn't even change at that and he returned to his task of arranging Hirakoba's pillow collection. However Zaizen did notice the light tinge to his hollow cheeks that he observed with great interest. Somehow though, he doubted Hirakoba paid any attention to it; he seemed more interested in kissing cheese from the corner of Zaizen's lip and hugging the breath out of him as usual.

–

How long had he been at Higa now, Zaizen tried to think, as he had Hirakoba sprawled over his lap, sacrificing his back to be used as a laptop table while he napped.

It was an awkward position, but they both were happy and comfortable enough with it. And Hirakoba seemed to be actually asleep, if the timing of his breathing was anything to go by and the lack of wandering hands.

Over a month... six weeks, maybe? … Two months?

And how long had it been since he'd messaged Shiraishi to let him know about his progress?

… He couldn't recall the last one and that frightened him a little with how easily he'd slipped into complacency and lost track of things while staying in Hirakoba's care.

He considered for a while that perhaps this constant calmness and contentedness with the situation was a result of some power being used over the room, to keep Hirakoba happy. That would explain so much, as he shifted the book on Hirakoba's bum to a slightly better position as a mousepad.

Zaizen certainly had collected enough information now to be able to have a decent chance at escaping the house and being able to kill Hirakoba. He thought that just by listening to his breathing or the strength of his grip while they were in bed together, he could determine the safe points throughout the night where killing him would be so easy.

Even the routine of the guards and their shifts and how it lined up with Hirakoba's sleeping pattern, he could predict and at what time he needed to get Hirakoba settled down into bed so that he had that tiny window of opportunity.

But even just writing a message to Shiraishi, he didn't want to do and for the nth time, Zaizen x'ed out of the window.

Later, he told himself. Tonight was the wrong timing for it.

But of course, Higa was never fully known, particularly with how little information he had about the Higa elders and trying to determine their thought patterns. And of all the things Zaizen had been thinking they might do, he certainly hadn't been expecting them to decide to move Hirakoba to the mainland.

“The situation between Seigaku and Rikkai has worsened,” Kite said to them and Zaizen felt Hirakoba's arms tighten around him slightly. “The elders voted unanimously to preemptively move you to a safe house.”

“For how long?”

“Until we can strengthen our defences. We know Yamabuki have infiltrated us before,” clearly Dan Taichi's presence hadn't gone unnoticed. “As have other families.” Kite's gaze lingered on Zaizen for a long moment before returning to Hirakoba.

“We tried to cover up the attempted murder a few nights ago, but they learned about it. They're getting paranoid that you've become a more public target.”

That was interesting. He wondered who had been responsible for trying to cover it up. And more importantly, why? What did that say about those person's links to the elders that they were attempting to defy them like that?

“So they're taking it away from me now, I'm guessing? No more visitors to my room?”

Kite looked troubled but Zaizen thought he could detect a little bit of sympathy in his expression. “Probably not.”

“I hope they're not planning on substituting themselves in to keep me entertained.”

“Also probably not.” And some amusement now.

There was a pause before Hirakoba sighed loudly. “Who else is coming with me to this safe house?”

“Yuujirou was assigned to it.”

There was a troubled silence and Zaizen hunched his shoulder as Hirakoba pressed his face into it before he spoke. “Will there be mochi and internet there?”

Kite seemed to understand exactly the reason behind that question and his gaze on Zaizen was so sharp. But Zaizen just met it with his usual flat stare, uncaring.

“Yes Rin, you can take your pet with you.”

… Surely moving Hirakoba away from his protected room here in the Higa household, where he was surrounded by people with powers, was a foolish idea for people that wanted to keep him safe? Particularly with how closely one needed to observe in order to ascertain that Hirakoba was indeed the water elemental.

But there was the tactician in Rikkai, who would be capable of it, Zaizen reminded himself. And they didn't know where the attempted murderer from the other night had come from. If Rikkai found Seigaku and Hyotei too much of a challenge to take on in their current states, perhaps Higa was a very tempting target.

So perhaps moving him to another location was a good idea? If they brought all three elementals with them, Zaizen had no doubt they could level the house to the ground.

“Will you come with me, Mary-kun?” Hirakoba asked, after Kite had left and Hirakoba petted his hair and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

No. … “I'll need three boxes of red bean mochi.”

Had Hirakoba actually been worried that he wouldn't agree to come? The arms around him spoke of relief and happiness anyway.

–

There were many places Zaizen could think of to have a safe location, a beach in Wakayama was not one of them. Particularly since if anything, the availability of the beach in relation to where they were staying, and Kai's laxness in enforcing the rules of keeping Hirakoba in line, meant that he was more obvious than ever with his elemental powers.

Still, it was so hard to complain or say anything about it when he was sitting out in the fresh air and Hirakoba was so obviously happier here.

Zaizen had burned the first day and the redness had faded into tan lines and a bit of peeling skin that Hirakoba had laughed over and kissed as they sat in bed together.

The second day, he'd made Hirakoba buy him a parasol to hold over himself while he sat on the beach. The alternative was letting Hirakoba slather him up with sunscreen, which was sticky and smelled, and he'd told him as such, much to his amusement.

And so he spent almost every daylight hour sitting at the beach, watching Hirakoba in the water and spending the nights with him wrapped around him, sleeping so soundly while Zaizen enjoyed the feeling of the fresh nighttime breeze through the windows that he hadn't realised until now he'd missed.

Hirakoba was surfing today and Zaizen watched from under the shaded safety of his parasol. The man always had a good wave, as expected.

He was caught considering how much power and manipulation Hirakoba would have to put in, trying to find the exact moment he did – was it from the beginning and actually forming the wave itself, or was it just controlling when and how it broke?

He wanted to know the exact level of control Hirakoba had, now that he knew how far it extended beyond just letting himself breathe underwater and propelling himself through his pool.

Somehow he thought Hirakoba might even be willing to demonstrate to him, especially with Kai supervising and not really caring. He half considered actually getting up and getting his toes wet in the ocean to ask him.

But before he could, there was a surprised shout of his name and Zaizen turned around in surprise, seeing Kenya heading towards him.

He was surprised he wasn't running and was making an effort to hold back his super speed to look like a – very briskly walking – person.

“Zaizen?! You're alive?!”

Zaizen moved his parasol to hit the edge of it into Kenya's forehead. “No, I'm a ghost. I'm haunting you.”

There were suddenly hands on his arm, much more invasive than Hirakoba's ever seemed to be, pulling him up to standing.

“What are you doing here? Why didn't you come home if you're so close?”

Zaizen glanced at the water, seeing Kai and Hirakoba together, laughing and paying him no attention at the moment. “I'm holidaying.”

And then he realised.

… He had to get Kenya away from here. Right now.

Kenya, who knew from Zaizen's notes about who the water elemental wielder was and what he looked like. Kenya, who was definitely no match for Hirakoba, particularly with this much water around them, let alone Kai.

Kenya, who Zaizen definitely didn't want to see killed.

And he hated that hesitation in him as he tried to foresee what was going to happen down the many routes he could think of, from staying here, to moving away, to making Kenya leave him alone. There were so many possibilities and Zaizen scrunched up his face slightly as he tried to concentration. 

Kenya seemed to notice his dilemma and sudden stress as well, grasping his arm and giving him a concerned shake that did nothing to distract him.

Zaizen looked at the ocean again and the blonde figure he could see paddling out to the deeper water again. And then shoved his hand into Kenya's face to stop him from following his gaze, pushing his face away to the other side.

He didn't really have a choice.

Or that's what he told himself, to justify what he was doing?

“I'm done holidaying. I got burned and sunscreen smells.”

He put the parasol down, purposely covering up Hirakoba's possessions that he didn't think Kenya had seen with his interest too much on Zaizen. And then he stood up, dusting off sand from his legs.

He barely listened to Kenya's platitudes about how Shiraishi wasn't going to care about him failing the mission – how had he gone with that, anyway? - or about why Kenya was there in the first place.

He just needed to keep walking away from the beach and not look back in case he changed his mind about walking away from Hirakoba.

\--

It wasn't until he was on the train back to their home that Zaizen had the belated realisation that perhaps sending them to Wakayama hadn't been for Hirakoba's safety, but some twisted strategy by Higa to get rid of him.

And one that he hadn't foreseen and predicted.

…

And one that had actually worked and had probably been the worst way for him to leave.

It made sense, now that he thought about it. Why else send Kai with them, who was irresponsible and bad at keeping track of Hirakoba and keeping him in line? Why let Hirakoba out of the safe house so much, when otherwise they were so intent on keeping him away from the public eye.

But that wasn't so important anymore, though Zaizen was annoyed at himself for not seeing it and falling into the their trap.

More importantly was, what had Hirakoba thought, when he'd returned to the shore to find Zaizen gone, his possessions still on the beach? And how long had he waited before he realised that Zaizen wasn't coming back?

He could imagine Hirakoba's expression easily enough, though there were still many faces of the other man that he hadn't seen, he realised that.

What had he _done_ when he'd realised? There had been no news of anything happening and no threat of Higa moving into Shitenhouji territory, even though Zaizen regularly checked for it.

Of course Higa wouldn't move into Shitenhouji territory, Zaizen told himself. They were probably overjoyed that their plan had worked and he'd left their household, no matter Hirakoba's reaction to it.

And then there were the worse thoughts; had Hirakoba curled up into his ball under the covers on the bed when he'd gotten back to the room? At least the room they'd been in in the safe house had windows he could look out instead of depressingly blank walls.

And with Zaizen gone, how quickly had Hirakoba been made to return to Okinawa and back to his room?

… Had anyone been there with him?

Had he maybe been so easily replaced by someone else that Hirakoba had picked up off the street and dragged into his world? Or had the elders gone through with their word and kept him isolated again to satisfy their own paranoia?

Maybe Chinen had stepped up and tried taking his space, although he doubted the tall man was comfortable to hug and would be satisfactory.

Zaizen tapped on his computer, scrolling quickly through the news sites.

It was weird, how easily back he'd been accepted into Shitenhouji. How _relieved_ his family had been to have him back, even though he'd been gone for so long and had done nothing.

It was back to normal then, pushing off Koharu's hugs automatically and dodging Tooyama's rush to jump on him when the boy had gotten back from his adventure in Tokyo and found him to be home, and spending long afternoons with Chitose, wiping the floor with him at shogi.

He hated his family.

… But not that much, as Kenya tossed him a packet of crisps from the doorway and went off to his own room.

Shiraishi had asked him what had happened, of course.

“It was a mistaken identity. Hirakoba only breathes underwater, he doesn't control the element. There was no elemental wielders in Higa,” Zaizen found himself saying, for reasons he couldn't comprehend himself, though he mulled over his words many times at night.

Returning to Shitenhouji should have been easy to adjust back into, but Zaizen found himself missing the extra warmth in the bed and the physical contact that was comfortable and undemanding; not invasive and annoying like his family's was. He missed the easy conversations and the extra presence in the room as he played video games – although he did note that his computer was much better for it than Hirakoba's laptop.

… This sucked.

The whole family thought he was unhappy, but he refused to tell them any details of why, instead just leaving them to realise that his door was shut more often and he spent longer than before on his computer or watching Amelie while bundled up under blankets.

They guessed, as he knew they would.

Tooyama thought that he was sulking from a loss and tried to convince him that losing was _okay_ , sometimes, not really, and then got himself confused. Last he'd heard, the red head had gone off to Tokyo again to fight against his friend after their one sided conversation.

Kenya never guessed or prodded him for answers, for which Zaizen was thankful for, though he didn't show it. He liked to think Kenya understood anyway as he always had.

That silence was made up for by Koharu and Yuuji making wild guesses about what had happened. He'd been swept off his feet by someone there and was pining in love, was their latest guess. Zaizen had just thrown the contents of his cup of tea at them and shut the door.

Idiots.

But he was unhappy, that much he had to admit to himself after weeks of moping in his room. And he grew more unhappy as his mind moved through possibilities and figured out the most likely of events that had occurred after he left and were probably happening now.

Hirakoba was probably very unhappy as well and he hated that he cared about it.

And he hated that he had to do something about it. That maybe he needed to get up and leave, as he'd told Hirakoba to do?

There were no doors holding him back, or guards outside his room. And certainly, with how well he'd hidden his power from his whole family, hiding it from the outside world wasn't difficult.

It was such a stupid idea and he'd probably throw things at anyone else if they'd thought of doing the same. But it was only for a short while, he told himself. Just to confirm a few things, that he didn't quite know yet, but he'd sort out on the plane trip over. And to get Hirakoba out of the Higa house. Maybe.

Zaizen told only Kenya, as he passed him on the way to the front door, his bag slung over his back. And it said so much that Kenya made no move to stop him or convince him otherwise.

\--

The beaches in Okinawa were nice, even if it was still hot as he sat on the wall and stared at his phone, scrolling through forums.

Kenya sent him a photo of his iguana and he saved it. It was much more acceptable than the other photos of sneakers that he got.

There was no blond haired surfer out there today, or splashing in the shallows, just like there hadn't been for the past few days that he'd been there.

Still trapped inside in his room, then. Maybe curled up around another dark haired short male.

Zaizen lifted up his phone to take a quick photo of the beach, focusing on the angle to take his mind of where his thoughts had wandered.

There was no point in him being there today either, but he couldn't quite bring himself to get up and trek back to the hotel just yet. Even if he could feel the sun on the back of his neck and he was probably going to get sunburned there.

He barely paid any attention to the footsteps behind him, even as his mind processed the sounds of them – someone with a limp, an older man, two girls in much too tall heels, a businessman in designer shoes, two males. He only looked up as there was suddenly shade over him.

“You're meant to at least swim at the beach, you know Zaizen-kun, not just sit on your phone.”

Zaizen turned around to look, seeing Chinen with his usual unreadable expression on his face, standing behind a smiling Hirakoba, holding a parasol over him.

He lowered his phone down to lap and stared at Hirakoba, analysing him quickly. A little thinner than before, his hair had been recently dyed and he couldn't quite figure out the exact feelings behind that smile.

Someone had told Hirakoba his real name. Or perhaps he'd known it all along and just played along with calling him Mary Poppins. It didn't really matter all that much though, he decided.

“I don't know who that is. I'm not Zaizen,” he said flatly, turning back around to pointedly look at his phone again.

There was such familiar laughter – the genuine, definitely amused laughter – and then the warm arms wrapping around him from behind. Hirakoba pressed his face into Zaizen's shoulder, his arms tightening around him so it was almost difficult to breathe.

“Mary-kun, of course. Sorry.” There was a pause before Hirakoba spoke again. “I'm going swimming. Can you swim now, or do you still need lessons?”

Zaizen elbowed him, but not too hard. “I don't need lessons. I've always been able to swim.”

“Are you going to join me in the water, then?”

“I'm only putting my feet in.”

Hirakoba hummed as he considered his answer. And then he spoke again, with such a sudden change in topics that it disarmed Zaizen for a moment. He'd been waiting for the usual attempts at bribery and bartering for affection. “Are you back now? I missed you.” His voice sounded so hopeful and his arms were so deathly tight around him.

There was no questions about what had happened and where he'd been. And somehow he thought that Hirakoba wouldn't ask him about it either, until he wanted to tell him himself.

Zaizen didn't answer; he couldn't answer. And that was enough for Hirakoba to know and his arms tightened around him. Zaizen had no answer for him, except to maybe push his arms off from around him and head down to the water. But he didn't do that, just yet.

And he noticed Hirakoba made no move either to pull away to let him.


End file.
